Lumoria
The Lumoria campaign, originally titled Project Lumoria, is a mod of Halo: Combat Evolved, developed by TM Mapping Team. Initially released on it's own on November 26th 2010 as part of Halo: Custom Edition, a vastly updated version was released by the Custom Mapping Team (CMT) and included with Halo SPV3 in the 2019 update on July 6th. In place of Master Chief, players, instead, control a female SPARTAN-II, May-017 (called May-073 in the original mod). The original version features gameplay, vehicles and weapons identical to Halo: Combat Evolved, albeit with its own environments that seem to be mostly based on CE's 2nd mission, Halo. The SPV3 version has improved graphics, unique weapons, some new vehicles and enemies from SVP3's main Halo campaign. The story was also slighty changed, despite the mission objectives in both versions remaining the same. Campaign In the original mod, Project Lumoria was presented as a 4 part mini campaign. For it's SPV3 rerelease, the final 2 missions were merged into one, due to their length being shorter than the first 2, to make it into a 3 part story. Characters * May-017 * Sergeant Brandon Keifer * ONI Agent Jayne Ethan Joness * Scarecrow * Lor' Darram * 734 Antecedent Sage Story Lumoria is set right after the Fall of Reach. The events are implied to take place at the same time as Halo: Combat Evolved, but in an entirely seperate corner of the galaxy. Just before Reach was glassed by the Covenant, Sergeant Brandon Keifer, a highly trained ODST, and ONI Agent Jayne Ethan Joness rescue May-017, a female SPARTAN-II whose suit resembles John-117's. Together, with a large group of other Marines and ODST's, they escape the destruction of Reach on the Endless Horizon, a UNSC frigate filled with many obsolete weapons and equipment, and one of the few human vessels not kitted out to deal with the Covenant, instead tasked with dealing with Marine deserters and insurrectionists. They quickly plot a course through subspace based on coordinates found inside a Forerunner structure on Reach. The Endless Horizon arrives in orbit around a mysterious planet called Lumoria. On the planet is a single Covenant cruiser. Lumoria is littered with Forerunner structures and tunnels that run through the planet. Joness leads a small research team down to the surface to study the achitecture and learn what the Covenant's interest is in the world. However, soon after, the crew on board the Endless Horizon lose contact with Joness' team, and Brandon and May lead a rescue mission with the aid of Scarecrow, pilot of the Pelican dropship Delta 137. During the mission, May learns that a Covenant fleet came to Lumoria 25 years ago and, after entering restricted areas, met with resistance from Forerunner Sentinels and Enforcers. That, coupled with the ever-intensifying war against humanity, caused the fleet to withdraw from Lumoria around 20 years ago, save for one ship that has remained on the world ever since. After battling through Covenant and Sentinel forces, May and Brandon rescue Joness, who informs them that he has discovered that Lumoria is actually an artifical planet built entirely by the Forerunners. The world acts as a stronghold for much of the Forerunners technology that the Covenant are salvaging, but is also an enormous database that houses a record of the locations of all planets in the entire galaxy and lists all their inhabitants, and that the Covenant are attempting to find out the location of Earth from it. They then escape but are chased by the Elite Admiral of the Covenant on Lumoria, Lor' Darram, who is equipped with a Forerunner teleportaion device and active camouflage. Afterwards, May and Brandon lead the Marines and ODST's on an assault on the Covenant forces around the main facility on Lumoria while searching for survivors of Pelican dropships that had been previously shot down. During the operation, Brandon hacks into the Covenant Battle Net and learns from them that the nearby facility is believed to house some kind of superweapon. Wanting to take control of it for themselves, May and Brandon head to the facility and defeat the Covenant defense there and the swarms of Sentinels around the structure. Inside they discover the superweapon, only to find that it is sentient and recognises them as humans. The superweapon, 734 Antecedent Sage, is in fact a Guardian that turned on its Forerunner creators thousands of years ago after being inspired by their war with the Flood. With the other Guardians combined, however, the Forerunners were able to defeat Antecedent Sage and imprisoned it beneath the surface of Lumoria, where it has remained ever since. The presence of the humans has awoken the Guardian and it has once again emerged with the intention of a forced everlasting peace on the whole galaxy by enslaving or destroying all life. With the release of 734 Antecedent Sage, the Covenant, now scared and surprised by the Guardian's appearance, converge on and fortify the database facility to hasten their mission to find Earth. May and Brandon lead and all out assault on the facility, the Endless Horizon itself taking part, fighting through Covenant, Sentinels and Enforcers to get to the main terminal so as to prevent the Covenant from finding Earth and to uncover a way to stop the Guardian, which has also appeared at the facility. The terminal is guarded personally by Lor' Darram, who kills Brandon after engaging him and May in battle. However, May defeats the Admiral, using his own Energy Sword to deliver the killing blow. Joness then approaches the terminal, erases Earth from its records and, under May's order, detonates a powerful EMP from within 734 Antecedent Sage that envelops the whole surrounding solar system. The Guardian is finally destroyed, but at the cost of permenatly disabling all Forerunner, Covenant and human technology on the planet, leaving May and all of her allies stranded on Lumoria. The campaign ends with an epilogue from May, saying that even though they have no way to leave the planet, and that it could be years before they are found, if they ever are, every marine who died there, especially Brandon, fought for what they believed in. She also says that their actions on Lumoria may give Earth the chance it needs of survival and that SPARTAN's never really die. They just go missing in action. Difference's from the original mod Although the environments and mission objectives are the same in both the original mod and the SPV3 remake, there are many differences between the two. The story was altered to feature a Guardian in the SPV3 version, the title entity from Halo 5: Guardians, as originally 734 Antecedent Sage was an enormous Forerunner A.I. construct that looked after Lumoria, much like 343 Guilty Spark did for Installation 04 in Halo CE. In Project Lumoria, 734 Antecedent Sage was created by the Librarian and was left to oversee Lumoria alone for 8000 years before the Librarian returned with word of the Flood and the Forerunners plan involving the Halo Array. The Librarian tasked Antecedent Sage with looking after the humans that would be brought to Lumoria so that it can be used as a conservation world to save them. The terminals found in the campaign featured recorded conversations between the Librarian and the A.I. Over the next several millenia, 734 Antecedent Sage would carry out this mission while questioning his own exsistence, up until May and the Marines' appearance on Lumoria, by which time he appears to have become rampant. At the end, Joness, simply called the Scientist in the original mod, uses the final terminal to disable Antecedent Sage's shields so that the Endless Horizon can bombard and destroy the A.I. The Marines then leave Lumoria instead of becoming stranded there. Other differences include the removal of cutscenes in the remake. The cutscenes in question generally delve further into Halo's lore, referencing things like the Precursors. These were removed, possibly to maintain story momentum and to keep the campaign more mainstream. Major Kallis, the commander of the Endless Horizon's militay force, is a character from the original that seems to have been removed from the SPV3 version as he appears in the deleted cutscenes. Although Scarecrow is still featured in the new version, he is never seen as the cutscenes he appears in have been removed. The captain of the Endless Horizon is also an omitted character from the original. The backstory of the Endless Horizon's purpose on Lumoria was also slightly altered. Rather than escaping Reach, it can be assumed from the opening of the original version that the events of the campaign occur before the Fall of Reach. The UNSC bans the exploration of new worlds, so all human assets in the galaxy can concentrate on the war effort against the Covenant. One scientist (the character of Joness in the remake) defies this rule and travels to the newly discovered Lumoria with a group of Marines as escort. Once there, the Covenant arrives, kills most of the Marines there and captures the scientist. Some Marine survivors set up a distress beacon, to which the UNSC responds, sending the Marines led by Major Kallis, along with Sergeant Brandon Keifer, accompanied by May-073 (as she is designated in the original mod), to rescue them aboard the Endless Horizon. In the original, May was represented by using Master Chief's character model from Halo: Combat Evolved, but with a female voice actor. In the SVP3 version, a unique character model has been developed for her, which is heavily based on Master Chief's appearance but far more feminine. She also has a different voice actor with revised and extended lines added. The other characters also have new voice actors. Lor' Darram, in the original, resembles a regular Spec-Ops Elite from Combat Evolved but with a uniquely curved head piece. In the remake he has a regular shark-like head piece but sports a black and gold colour scheme for his harness. Sentinel Enforcers appear in both versions, but a new type of Sentinel, exclusive to the Lumoira campaign, is featured in the remake. In the original, however, the flying Drone enemies from Halo 2 make an appearnce in several encounters but have been omitted in the remake. Also, the original features independant Covenant turrets in certain areas, that can be turned on your enemies if hacked at the control panel, these have been replaced by Anti Aircraft Wraith's in the new version. Gameplay The Lumoria campaign puts players in control of May-017, rather than the traditional John-117. Through most of the campaign, players are accompanied by fellow Marines and ODST's, particularly Brandon who can be revived if knocked down, ala Halo 5. Like revivable allies in SPV3's main campaign though, he cannot revive May. Marine allies here seem to be more helpful than in the main campaign, being more even in number with the Covenant and are also able to drive vehicles in certain cases. Many weapons in this campaign are unique and are not featured in the main campaign. All these weapons have been balanced to create a well diversed sandbox that is featured soley in these missions. The idea is that the Endless Horizon is loaded out with older weapons. Such as a silenced pistol, an SMG with higher ammo capacity than normal but is more difficult to control, an Assault Rifle that fires faster but is less accurate, a Battle Rifle that lacks a scope but fires bursts of 4 shots instead of 3, a DMR that fires faster, is stronger but causes severe flinching, and a modified Brute Plasma Rifle that fires in massive bursts but also overheats sooner, and must be manually cooled down. Certain new weapons replace others like, for Lumoria, the Grenade Launcher replaces the Rocket Launcher, has more ammo but must be reloaded after every shot. Apart from the already mentioned Plasma Rifle, and the addition of the Spiker, all Covenant Weapons are the same as the main campaign, but a new Forerunner weapon has been added. Replacing the Sentinel Sniper Beam, the Rapid-fire Sentinel Beam is gold with purple lights and fires multiple shots instead of one long incineration beam. It also has a zoom function similar to the Battle Rifle or Particle Carbine, where it will also fire much faster but over charge quicker. The Needle Grenade, that replaces the Frag Grenade in The Commander and The Commander: Evolved, has taken the spot of the Cluster Grenade in the Lumoria campaign. Vehicles are mostly the same as SPV3's main campaign, with the exception of a green Covenant Shadow that has a Fuel Rod Cannon mounted instead of a Shade Turret. The VISR armor ability has been replaced with THERMAL VISION, which highlights the enemies body heat, making cloaked Covenant visible. Many enemies with Active Camouflage appear in the levels, with a new function that grants the ability to Grunts, Brutes, Jackals and Skirmishers unless the nearby cloaking array is deactivated. While the RADAR ability is not featured, both HEALTH REGEN and SPRINT are unchanged. A particular Elite is encountered wielding an Energy Sword in one hand and a large shield in the other, somewhat similar to a Jackal Shield. This enemy type is inspired by an Elite seen in the Halo: Combat Evolved E3 2000 trailer, that carries the same shield. There are a few more of them in the original mod. Also, the Elite Admiral, Lor' Darram is seen wielding a never before seen weapon, which appears to be a Particle Carbine but fires green explosive plasma bolts, like a weak, rapid-fire Fuel Rod Gun. Features Weapons *-Unavailable for player use. Vehicles *-Unavailable for player use. Equipment Developer Notes TBA Gallery TBA Trivia * During the cutscene where Lor' Darram chases May, Brandon and Joness, on Normal difficulty its actually possible for May to kill the Elite Admiral as she shoots him before he teleports away. After he teleports, however he'll reappear alive and undamaged. * The remake of this mod was released by CMT, despite them not originally creating it. * During the ending, even though the EMP within 734 Antecedent Sage was detonated, destroying all forms of technology in the solar system, the Pelican carrying Brandon's body flys away, seeming to be working normally. * Although the thumbnail for Fight For The Future shows May holding an Energy Sword in both the original mod and the SPV3 remake, the weapon itself is not available for the player to use in gameplay. She only uses it during the ending cutscenes.